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I decided to give the 'new' bujin stuff a try and order a jacket and pants from aikido24. First off i'll say that the ordering process has been very nice- great communication and fast turn around to ship via fedEx. So it's out of their hands right now... no fault to them (so basically so far i have a positive review for them regarding shopping experience).

I'm expecting the stuff to arrive this week but this morning I had the most dumbfounding experience with a fexEx rep on the phone. They called and it went approximately like this:

FedEx: good morning sir, we have a package here from germany that is held up in Customs and we wanted to verify some information
Me: sure, what can i do for you?
FedEx: the first item on this list, a "white belt", it seems that this was manufactured in china, even though it's coming from Germany
Me: well, yes it's true that the vendor I purchased this from is in Germany, and yes i'm aware that this piece of 'clothing' is made in china
FedEx: Sir, can you please provide us with the address to the manufacturer in China that this garment was made?
Me: uh..... are you serious? who the heck is supposed to know the address of where something is made in china.... (thought about asking them what the address to the plant in china where your phone is made, but didn't want to be rude). I can get you the address to aikido24 in Germany where I purchased this from... is that enough?
FedEx: Sir, we are going to have to find the address to the manufacturer in china before clearing these items
[at this point i'm dumbfounded and have no idea what to say]

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them regarding purchases from aikido24? I actually had a difficult ordering from them in the first place because when I tried to place the order, my credit card company (a standard VISA card) halted the transaction due to fraud protection. I had to get them to manually 'unfreeze' transactions over there for a few hours so i could even place the order.

Is it coincidence that twice now i've had really weird hurdles to climb in purchasing goods from them? Again, my communication from them has been fantastic so this isn't criticism on them specifically. I'm just curious if it's happened to anyone else?

This happens from time to time as things come into the US through customs. It is a complete pain in the ass and is your government at work, a part of the beloved Department of Homeland Security. You will probably have to pay an import duty to have your stuff released. As far as I can tell, it is random.

"The Internet has made it easy to find and purchase items from almost anywhere in the world. However, many people are discovering that getting a foreign-bought item successfully delivered to the United States is much more complicated.

When goods move from any foreign country to the United States, they are being IMPORTED. There are specific rules and regulations that govern the act of importing - and they can be extremely complex and confusing - and costly."

You should hear my fun while ordering a 'white powder' from Singapore ... they were not at all comforted when I explained it was harmless Europium and Yttrium oxides. Really these issues are due to the exporter not having their ducks lined up.

"In my opinion, the time of spreading aikido to the world is finished; now we have to focus on quality." Yamada Yoshimitsu

I decided to give the 'new' bujin stuff a try and order a jacket and pants from aikido24. First off i'll say that the ordering process has been very nice- great communication and fast turn around to ship via fedEx. So it's out of their hands right now... no fault to them (so basically so far i have a positive review for them regarding shopping experience).

I'm expecting the stuff to arrive this week but this morning I had the most dumbfounding experience with a fexEx rep on the phone. They called and it went approximately like this:

FedEx: good morning sir, we have a package here from germany that is held up in Customs and we wanted to verify some information
Me: sure, what can i do for you?
FedEx: the first item on this list, a "white belt", it seems that this was manufactured in china, even though it's coming from Germany
Me: well, yes it's true that the vendor I purchased this from is in Germany, and yes i'm aware that this piece of 'clothing' is made in china
FedEx: Sir, can you please provide us with the address to the manufacturer in China that this garment was made?
Me: uh..... are you serious? who the heck is supposed to know the address of where something is made in china.... (thought about asking them what the address to the plant in china where your phone is made, but didn't want to be rude). I can get you the address to aikido24 in Germany where I purchased this from... is that enough?
FedEx: Sir, we are going to have to find the address to the manufacturer in china before clearing these items
[at this point i'm dumbfounded and have no idea what to say]

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them regarding purchases from aikido24? I actually had a difficult ordering from them in the first place because when I tried to place the order, my credit card company (a standard VISA card) halted the transaction due to fraud protection. I had to get them to manually 'unfreeze' transactions over there for a few hours so i could even place the order.

Is it coincidence that twice now i've had really weird hurdles to climb in purchasing goods from them? Again, my communication from them has been fantastic so this isn't criticism on them specifically. I'm just curious if it's happened to anyone else?

This is the fault of the shipper. As a retailer shipping out of country, their documentation has to be better. Clearly their customers are not in a position to have this kind of information. When companies import goods in the US, they employ a "factor" to handle the process. It is the "factors" job to expedite the whole process, get more documentation if required, get the funds released for duty payments (deposits are held in advance for this), document final delivery to the customer etc. This all happens behind the scenes and most people not in the business don;t know anything at all about the process.

For a retailer shipping directly to a purchaser, it is up to the shipper to make sure that their documentation clears customs. It doesn't get through customs you should stop payment on your credit card and they are the ones stuck with goods at US customs. If that happens more than a couple of times, they either stop shipping to the US or they get their act together about how they document what they are shipping. You should contact the retailer and tell them this is their issue.